Cops: Check `washing' foiled

Northwest suburban police said Tuesday that they had broken up a check-stealing scheme in which four women took outgoing checks from residential mailboxes, washed the ink off the checks and reused them.

Authorities said the four suspects would cruise through several suburbs looking for curbside mailboxes with mail waiting for pickup.

Tammy Dennel, 28, who police characterized as a drifter with a drug habit, was arrested by police and postal inspectors on Saturday. Police are still looking for the three other women.

Dennel was charged with eight counts of forgery and theft and is being held in Cook County Jail in lieu of $160,000 bail.

Police said that Dennel admitted to investigators from the Buffalo Grove, Northbrook, Palatine and Wheeling Police Departments that she had stolen, washed or forged eight checks for between $500 and $900 each and implicated other women in the scam that began last month.

Police also said she unsuccessfully attempted to cash a stolen and washed check for $6,000 in Wheeling.

After the women stole the checks, they altered them with a mixture of household products, Buffalo Grove Detective Anthony Gallagher said.

"What these women were doing was not too sophisticated," Gallagher said.

The suspects removed the ink from the payee and amount lines on the checks and cashed them at the victims' banks, according to Dave Colen, a postal inspector in Carol Stream.

So far, police say several thousand dollars has been stolen and several other departments are investigating check-washing cases they think may be tied to the same group.

Charles Bruce, director of the National Check Fraud Center in North Carolina, said that check-washing schemes account for $815 million in fraud annually and the problem is growing.

Bruce said other scam artists have used check washing to steal millions from corporations.

"The only thing you can do to protect yourself against check washing is to use common sense and not leave your mail in the box where anyone can get at it," Bruce said. "Take it to a U.S. postal drop box or take it directly to the post office."

In Schaumburg, crime prevention officers have urged residents not to leave outgoing mail in their boxes, said Lt. Dennis Carroll.

"When you leave your mailbox red flag up, you're not just sending a message to your mail carrier," Carroll said. "You're sending a message to any scam artist who is on the lookout for a victim."